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Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

reuters.com

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Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#21

Post by michaelcampbell »

kalak451 wrote: post #7
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #2

Fully recognizing that Apple's 30% is highway robbery, isn't Google's "only 10%" still fairly outrageous? This seems like more a 5% feature, since the app providers still have to provide all their own infrastructure to actually support the subscription.

Does google require you to use their service the same way apple does? Or is their service just there for developers that want to use it(at a 10% cost?)

I believe the latter. Android has always allowed app installs not-from-the-market. Some CARRIERS (notably AT&T) have removed that ability for some handsets, but it's not universal and as far as I know, not common.

Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#22

Post by bryanallen22 »

Google Launches New Web Referral Program

Google today announced a new Web Referral program as part of their search engine. Indexed web pages that accept payment will be required to accept Google Checkout as a payment option. Google Checkout payments now give Google a 30% cut per transaction.

CEO Larry Page stated, "Our philosophy is simple - when Google brings a new buyer to the web page, Google earns a 30 percent share; when the company brings and existing or new buyer to the page, without using the Google search engine, the company keeps 100 percent and Google earns nothing. All we require is that, if a company is making a product or service available on their web page, the same (or better) offer be made via Google Checkout. We believe that this innovative Web Referral service will provide companies with a brand new opportunity to expand their exposure on the world wide web, delighting both users and companies."

Page added that customers will benefit from a consistent user interface and less distribution of their credit card and personal information.

Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#23

Post by bpodgursky »

random42 wrote: post #20
ck2 wrote: post #3

Apple's problem is it's company name doesn't end in AA , they are the only industries that can get away with 30% without investigation.

Non US guy here. Which company is it? (Must be famous, but does not ring a bell to me, right now).

Pretty sure he's referring to the MPAA and RIAA (they aren't actually companies.)

Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#25

Post by danilocampos »

Kylekramer wrote: post #19
danilocampos wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the app providers still have to provide all their own infrastructure Like the credit card processing, the hardware manufacturing facilities in China, the software libraries, the industrial designers... Apple has made it absurdly convenient to consume rich content. They have built fucking science fiction . 30% to get delivered to someone anywhere , any time is a bargain. You're paying to be part of the gut wrenching…

Is that hard? I mean, yes, it took tons of manhours and billions of dollars, but the "fucking science fiction" they made is pretty much par for the course these days. You can say it is a "superior user experience" and stuff like that, but c'mon. That is how tech advances. If I wanted, it would be quite trivial to get something delivered to someone anywhere without anything made by Apple. I'd amazed by how much people…

> I'd amazed by how much people support one of the richest companies in the world get richer off the backs of others.

Apple is getting rich by making extremely good stuff. I support them getting richer because I want them to continue making really good stuff I enjoy using. Because I can't trust any other company in the world to do that hard work.

Let me show you something:

2001:

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2001/10/4754...

2007:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9414/palm-treo-755p-revie...

One month later:

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphoneproductreviews/fr/iphone_revi...

Fucking science fiction. Consumer wireless devices were dull, stodgy things until Apple came in and said "fuck you, this sucks" and did it better. Innovation was putting an ugly resistive color screen into the clunky enclosures from six years earlier. Spicy.

2003:

http://www.tabletpc2.com/Acer.htm (Owned one of these)

2010:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2904

Three months later:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

Hey, that looks familiar, where have I seen that before? Oh, right, in science fiction.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD

Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#26

Post by ben1040 »

hardtke wrote: post #10

Apple spent millions of dollars promoting the concept that iPhone/iPad apps should not necessarily be free. How many times did you see a print ad where they showed a bunch of cool apps AND their prices? This 30% fee is simply a return on that investment. Paid apps don't sell on other platforms (e.g. Android) because these platforms never marketed this idea to consumers. 70% of something is better than 100% of nothing…

70% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

100% of nothing is preferable to 70% of "something", if it costs you 90% of "something" to deliver the service, and "something" is already the maximum price the market will bear (and Apple will not allow you to increase the "something" only on iOS to compensate for their demands anyway).

Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#27

Post by danilocampos »

If we're going to believe this website, looks like Apple will let you keep $3 more per $100 than PayPal and $11.50 more than credit card processors, assuming a $1 subscription fee like The Daily's:

http://feefighters.com/paypal-calculator

Maybe regulators should probe those guys.

(Credit to @schwa on this one: https://twitter.com/#!/schwa/status/38676753316708352 )

Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#28

Post by invertd »

bryanallen22 wrote: post #22

Google Launches New Web Referral Program Google today announced a new Web Referral program as part of their search engine. Indexed web pages that accept payment will be required to accept Google Checkout as a payment option. Google Checkout payments now give Google a 30% cut per transaction. CEO Larry Page stated, "Our philosophy is simple - when Google brings a new buyer to the web page, Google earns a 30 percent sh…

Well said sir, well said.

Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#29

Post by shou4577 »

danilocampos wrote: post #17
benologist wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Apple didn't build Netflix any more than HP, Dell or LG did, all of whom provide devices you can use for Netflix. Why doesn't Firefox get to charge 30%? A big chunk of people probably get to Netflix via it.

So we'll let the market decide which approach provides better value and a better user experience. Sounds like we've all got options, so what's the problem?

I've got one problem, but I haven't really figured out how it fits in exactly.

Assuming a lot of things in how this plays out, I don't find it terribly unlikely that some subscription services will have to raise their rates to maintain a profit. Maybe not a big problem for iOS users, since they get the benefit of using the app store for purchases.

What about non-iOS users? I subscribe to Netflix, but I don't use any apple products to access that subscription. According to Apple's rules, Netflix can't have the subscription available at different prices, and so my price goes up because of Apple's policy.

There may be some ways around this, like Netflix offering two plans - one that includes iOS use, one that doesn't - without hiking the latter. But they might not.

I haven't yet worked out what the "fairness" of this all is. As a consumer, I certainly don't feel that I am entitled to never having price hikes, and I realize at the same time that some of the money from products I pay for is used to support products that I don't pay for. But this feels wrong to me - maybe it's just the directness of it. Apple says "pay more" and even people who don't buy Apple products have to pay more.

Re: Regulators probe Apple 30% subscription plan

#30

Post by jonbro »

protomyth wrote: post #18

I actually wouldn't be opposed to it if (big if) they hosted the content and allowed apps with subscription/content to not have any in-app purchase at all (no Apple / no flip to Safari) to avoid the 30%. This would let Netflix, last.fm, etc do their thing and Amazon to do its thing. Everyone already knows to buy books on Amazon, so no great loss not having something in-app.

this is exactly it. the problem with the rules is that apple requires any app that makes money outside of the app to also give apple a way to skim. Apple could of course just enforce this for the apps that they are direct competitors with, but that seems like an even bigger issue.

I just thought of some other things that would be effected: google apps for business, any app that google distribs would need the option for in app payment.

this is 3.3.1 all over again.

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